That's not a rhetorical question. I'm actually wondering if there was, and what it was. This might be rendered null and void due to ownership transferral (as in, Activision owns Vivendi, and now has full, autonomous say over their IPs)

But in those cases, did the offender in the former case still have to register? That's the crux of this argument. In my local area's database, we have a lot of people who got busted at 20 for bonking a 15 year old. That makes them retarded, but that doesn't make them criminals for life. Of course, all that comes up as is Rape 4, or "Impairing the morals of children".

Most fan reaction - real, hardcore fans of CC - were anywhere from ambivalent to negative for Chrono Cross. The gaming media fell over it - as they should have, it's an outstanding game - but Square's "hardcore" base picked the game apart, and the game does not enjoy anywhere close to the reputation that CC does.

Doing something can often be more harmful than doing nothing. If they release something that doesn't meet the (sometimes ridiculous) expectations of their fanbase - a fanbase that rivals Star Wars fans in being batshit insane - it does cheapen the brand. They have to be very careful with what they do.

That said, releasing a C+D at 98% is a dick move. They knew the progress of the game well before it got to this point; they didn't just want to break the game, they wanted to break spirits, too.

I'm going public with my support, and I don't even use the Pirate Bay.

My feeling is that Sweden only went after them because they faced international isolation at the hands of the United States. Therefore, international policy is being designed by LOBBYISTS FOR AN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. An industry that already makes obscene profits.

I don't support piracy... but this is a sad, sad day, because I can see the next steps for this forming in my head, and I don't like them. This just emboldened an industry that's already shown it will do whatever it will restrict and attack the rights of it's customers to maintain their profits, and that has way too much influence in Washington, especially considering it's function.

I work behind a content filter, so the Digg bar was handy for reading sites that are filtered, so I didn't have to RDP onto a separate server to read blocked URLs. So this is kinda sad news for me, but c'est la vie, big picture and all that.

So far, everything I'm reading in that court - from the non-trolls - says that these girls are young, foolish, and will learn from this the hard way the same way we did back when we were in that age. So that's fine in this particular case.